Poprocks & Soda

Expect some reviews and news involving music, music videos & miscellany pop culture stuff. Go check it out:

http://poprocksoda.wordpress.com/

Tempie is the black and white female. She is a Rat Terrier. When we first got her she was the calm one so we named her Temperance which means:

moderation in action, thought, or feeling : restraint

And yes we did get the name from the Bones character.

We later discovered that she is actually the smarter and more aggressive of the two dogs.

Here she is peeking out the dog door.

She has calmed down somewhat over the last few weeks though. We think perhaps some of Luke’s sweetness is starting to rub off on her.

Luke is the brown and white male. He is half Papillon and half Rat Terrier. The breeder said they share the same grandma. I named him after two pop culture icons – Marvel’s Luke Cage and General Hospital’s Luke Spencer. He seemed rather fearless when we first got him. He was also a little bigger than all the other pups & was very boisterous knocking all the others down as he jumped up and down trying to get our attention in the tiny pin they were all in.

He actually grew into a very sweet & lovable goof ball.

Although he is larger than Tempie and quite capable of kicking her butt he never does although they wrestle around all the time. He almost always lets her “win”. She totally dominates him and he wouldn’t have it any other way!

My sister Kimmy (or Kim as she preferred) died Saturday, April 19, 2008. Full obit here

She was the youngest of my 4 sisters and consequently she was the one I was closest to. She moved 650 miles away (Louisiana) many years ago so we hadn’t been as close in a long time. But we did exchange emails now and then. We also seen each other last Thanksgiving. But sadly I NEVER did make it down there for that visit she always wanted and had repeatedly asked me to take. It’s a really sad admission I have to make that I NEVER made the grueling 10 hour drive until she was terminal in the hospital…then a week later I made the trek again only this time to the visitation at the funeral home.

My first trip down I got to see the house she was proud of and meet her two dogs. On my second trip I got to meet some of her in-laws. They were very sweet and really took great care of my grieving Mom. I also got to see first hand just how many friends she had. There was quite literally a LINE forming to get into the visitation area. It was a graphic testament to just how well liked she was as dozens and dozens of friends streamed in offering hugs and tears to the family and extended family strewn about the room.

I didn’t cry a whole lot and I’m not one to talk a lot about grief but I think I CAN write a bit about what she meant to me.

I credit Kimmy with fostering in me several things:

• a somewhat warped sense of humor
• a love of TV and Pop Culture (specifically SNL, among other things)
• a love of junk food (Doritos among other things)

Kimmy was 5 years older than me and so when I was about 11 she was 16 and working some crappy fast-food part-time job. My most vivid memories of my childhood with Kimmy is her coming home from work and bringing loads of JUNK FOOD.

Often on Saturday nights IF she didn’t have a date she would spend some of her pay check on snacks for us to consume while watching TV. I credit her with introducing me to Saturday Night Live at a VERY early age.

I remember her Gilda Radner impression (she did the Lisa Loopner snort really well). I also recall her telling me that she didn’t often get the political stuff on WeekEnd Update but most of it was still funny.

She had quite a sense of humor. A lot of the stuff she did when I was little I probably thought of as mean at the time I later realized was hilarious. For example she once tricked me into eating a piece of dog food. When I was a little kid I had a weird habit of reading the dictionary. I’d plop down on the floor and CLUNK a huge ragged dictionary down in front of the TV and just browse through reading words. She’d say:

“Here comes Larry with his big DIC-tionary!” and then she’d laugh. I didn’t get that for the LONGEST time!

I will never forget my sister Kimmy & I still watch SNL each week. It’s not as consistently funny as it was way back then even though I always understand the WeekEnd Update stuff now.